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Message: <blockquote data-quote="DreadPirateMurphy" data-source="post: 4787486" data-attributes="member: 20715">To be more succinct, I take this overlong essay to mean that older forms of fantasy had deep intrinsic meaning to the individual, whereas the modern genre of fantasy entertainment is lacking.  The theory is that we lack the aspects of struggle that historically drove great tales.Pish.Don't confuse the entertainment industry (which could only be supported in modern, wealthy times) with our actual fantasy.We have urban legends.  Conspiracy theories.  Fringe religions.  Ghost stories.  Telephone psychics and pyramid power.  Pop psychology.  Celebrity worship.  Alien abduction.All of those things are about people figuring out where they stand in the world and where they want to go.  One of the points Sagan made in The Demon-Haunted World is how much of it maps directly to the old legends.Folks like Jordan and Brooks and King are part of the entertainment industry, where "fantasy" is defined as that portion of speculative fiction dealing with magic and the supernatural.  Much of it, like all entertainment, is a retelling of the same tales with a slightly different filter.  Much of it, like all entertainment, is targeted at the lowest common denominator.  For every Oscar-worthy film, there are fifty slasher flick, teen sex comedy, derivative rom-com, and milking-it sequel films, and books aren't much different.</blockquote>